Shadow Puppets
by lrhaboggle
Summary: What beings as a harmless game quickly reveals to Charlie just how much the Afton family has to hide behind the shadows and away from the light. (Pre-Murders and multiple canons).


**AN: This is a gift to Lumax033 (Archive of Our Own) for the wonderful reviews you left on my stories and the "After the Smoke Clears" FNAF fic you wrote for me. I'm sorry if this was a bit longer and angstier than you might've wanted, but here you go. If you have any other plot ideas, tell me and I'll write them for you. Courtesy of a friend!**

"Do the bunny again! Do the bunny again!" Elizabeth demanded excitedly, shaking Charlie's arm violently.

"Ok, ok, ok!" Charlie laughed. "But you need to give me my arm back first, ok?" she gently removed her arm from Elizabeth's fingers. Once she had both of her hands in her own possession again, she held them up to the wall of pizzeria. It was entirely dark in the room in which she and Elizabeth sat, save for a large flashlight propped up by a chair. The two girls were playing Shadow Puppets. Charlie, as per Elizabeth's request, put her hands together and twisted her fingers so that it looked like a little black bunny was sitting in that circle of light generated by the flashlight.

"Ok, my turn!" Elizabeth giggled excitedly as she did a bear. She lowered her voice to a comically low tone and began to speak with a growly voice. "Hello there, Mr. Bunny! My name is Freddy! And if you aren't careful, I'm going to eat you up and swallow you whole!"

"But I am fast, Freddy! You will never catch me!" Charlie raised her arms and moved a few of her fingers to simulate the bunny running away.

"Oh, no you won't!" Elizabeth growled, smiling. She raised her own arms as well and she and Charlie's bunny continued run across the dimly lit wall before Charlie pretended that her bunny had gotten tired.

"Oh, boy! Am I tired!" Charlie said with a thick country accent. "I think I'm going to take a nap! Hopefully not bears will eat me while I'm asleep!" she turned her hands sideways so that it looked like the shadow puppet bunny was on its side. Elizabeth stifled laughter as she slowly brought her bear shadow puppet over to Charlie's sleeping bunny.

"ROAR!" Elizabeth opened up two of her fingers to make it look like the bear was about to eat the bunny.

"Oh no!" Charlie brought her hands back upright, her shadow puppet springing to life in fear and surprise. "Oh, my! What big teeth you have!" her thick accent shook with pretend fear.

"All the better to eat you with, my dear!" Elizabeth cackled, then she made a dramatic chewing sound as her shadow puppet ate Charlie's.

Suddenly, the overhead light to the room flickered on. Both Elizabeth and Charlie flinched against the bright light.

"Ow! Hey!" Elizabeth stood up angrily, wanting to know what idiot had dared interrupt her playtime. Young or not, Elizabeth was very bold and did not hesitate to demand answers from anyone who crossed her. She was still at the age when selfishness was the law of the land. She was so young that her sense of empathy and compassion had not yet reached its full potential and she could not fathom why anyone would interrupt her game. It didn't occur to her that she wasn't the only one in the world who mattered. Charlie, however, being slightly older and more mature, did understand these concepts.

"Hello, Michael," she greeted Elizabeth's oldest brother politely.

"Come on, losers, it's time to go home!" Michael grunted as he cocked his head towards the door.

"What? Why?" Elizabeth stuttered. "Daddy said we could stay here until closing!"

"Yeah, but our idiot kid brother is crying again and won't shut up and it's really starting to annoy everyone else," Michael's face turned into a sneer of poorly hidden contempt for his younger brother. Elizabeth's expression began to match Michael's. Cruel as it was, neither of the two felt much sympathy for their little brother. He was such a stupid little crybaby! Always so scared of everything! Especially of Daddy's animatronics! But they never hurt anyone, never! But still, Scott was always crying about how they were going to eat him and bite off his head. Maybe once upon a time, Elizabeth and Michael had sympathized with Scott's fears, but not anymore.

"Can't I just stay here while Daddy takes him home?" the little girl demanded, angry that Scott was ruining her fun again.

"No, Father wants all of us to go. Now!" Michael's tone got threatening. Although he did prefer his little sister to his little brother, his little brother had already angered him so much that he was starting to get a temper with his little sister too. Elizabeth and Charlie both scrambled to their feet.

"If only your Daddy didn't have to be away today!" Elizabeth whispered unhappily to Charlie. She was referring to the fact that, with William and Henry co-owning the pizzeria, they also co-owned a lot of the responsibilities that came with running the pizzeria. Henry was more of a mechanic, building the robots William wanted to have in his pizzeria, but Henry still had a lot of business meetings to attend to as well, especially since they both wanted Fredbear Family Diner to become a chain of restaurants. With Henry away, that left Charlie with William and that meant they all had to go home right now. Had Henry been there, Elizabeth could've gotten her wish to stay longer and just gone home with him instead.

"I know, right?" Charlie sighed heavily, but she was a lot more willing to follow Michael out of the room. She had to admit that he could be a bit of a butthead, especially to Scott, which really wasn't fair, but he was even older than she was. What could she do to stop him?

Once the trio reached the car, William was already inside, strapping a now-sniffling Scott into his seat. The man was muttering something to Scott, but it was unintelligible to the others. Charlie and Elizabeth got into the back with Scott while Michael trudged up front to sit by his father.

"Hey, Scott? Are you feeling alright?" Charlie asked gently, reaching out to touch the frightened boy's quivering arm. He only muttered out a negative, snuggling his face into his Fredbear plush toy. They all found it strange that Scott was so attached to the plushie despite being terrified of its robotic counterpart. Charlie made a sympathetic noise. "It's going to be ok, alright? I promise. Nothing's gonna hurt you now," Charlie patted Scott's arm, the natural comforter inside of her coming out. Scott looked at her, teary eyes wide. He was frightened by everyone, even her, but she made him feel so good. He kind of liked it and, not for the first time, wished that he was Charlie's brother instead of Michael's or Elizabeth's. He continued to sniffle, but the longer Charlie soothed him, the quieter he came.

"Alright. Everyone in," William sighed tiredly as he ushered all of his little brood into their house.

"Come on, Charlie! Let's go play in my room!" Elizabeth demanded at once, casting a surprisingly cruel glare at Scott. But to anyone who knew Elizabeth well, it was obvious why she was treating him in this way. Elizabeth was a very possessive and demanding girl, so used to being spoiled by her Daddy that she couldn't possibly imagine a world where she wasn't the center of attention. Watching Charlie comfort Scott had made Elizabeth very jealous and it was only the small amount of restraint that she had that kept her from calling Charlie on it while on the ride home. Now that they were all free to their own devices, however, Elizabeth was trying to secure Charlie at once.

"Ok, ok," Charlie said. "Let me just bring Scott."

"What? No! He can go play with his plushies!" Elizabeth stomped her little foot.

"Now, now, Elizabeth. Come on. Just let him play with us for a one round?" Charlie pleaded and Elizabeth, stubborn as she was, genuinely did have a soft spot for Charlie and she relented. Her frown faded and she nodded.

"Ok. But just this once," she led the other two up to her room.

Once inside, the two had resumed their shadow puppet game.

"Alright, Scott, who do you want to be?" Charlie asked as they sat in the dark room, only a flashlight illuminating it. He held up his plushie.

"But I'm being Fredbear!" Elizabeth complained.

"You got to be Fredbear at the diner," Charlie reminded Elizabeth. "How about you choose a different animal."

"Hmmm," Elizabeth mulled it over. "I guess I'll be a-"

Before she got to finish, her door was kicked open and Michael stormed in with a roar, wearing a foxy mask. Scott screamed bloody murder and began to bawl, screaming into Fredbear's head as he leapt onto Elizabeth's pink bed in terror, hiding his face from the foxy mask.

"Oh, good job, Michael!" Elizabeth snarled at her older brother. "Why can't you just go away and play your stupid boy video games and leave us alone?!" it was one of the rare instances she was willing to stick up for Scott. As much as she found Scott to be a crybaby, she did have to say that it was kind of mean of Michael to constantly be scaring him. Besides, he'd interrupted her game. That was a big no-no.

"Oh, come on, Sis! I was just having some fun," Michael grinned wickedly as he took off his foxy mask.

"No, you were being a bully!" Charlie agreed, standing up besides Elizabeth. Both of the little girls glared up at the taller, older boy.

"Oh, yeah, I'm so scared of you two!" he puffed out his chest. "What are you three doing in the dark anyway?"

"Shadow puppets!" Elizabeth answered, sticking out her tongue. Scott had gotten over his initial fright but was still crying quietly in the corner.

"Oh, what a baby game!" Michael sneered. "I could do so much better than the lame puppets you make!"

"Prove it!" Elizabeth snarled back. Michael only gave her a smirking shrug before sitting in front of the flashlight and conjuring up a large fox.

"I'm going to eat you, Scottie! I'm going to eat you all up until there's nothing left!" he growled. Scott covered his ears and started wailing again. He dared to peek at what Michael was doing and when he saw the giant shadow, its mouth opening and closing hungrily, he sobbed.

"Michael! Stop!" Charlie finally put her foot down. She grabbed at Michael's shirt and even though she wasn't strong enough to do more than move him a few inches back, she continued to tug viciously at him, demanding that he leave. She chastised him for his cruelty, warning him that he may one day regret his actions. She continued to tug on him as he laughed at her feeble attempts.

"And what are you doing to do about it?" he asked with a wicked sneer. "You're just a stupid little girl! You can't do anything to me!"

"Oh, don't you think so?" Charlie growled. She stood in front of the flashlight and it illuminated her face, creating shadows where her eyes were. Her face was impossibly white and her eyes were impossibly dark. "Get. Out."

Suddenly then, a new and larger, far more imposing shadow appeared in the doorway. It was tall and lithe, taking up the entire square of light created by the open doorway. It was William Afton. Like with Charlie, the light played across his face, making him look very dark and evil.

"Enough. I have had a very long, hard day and the last thing I need is for you four to be acting like madmen," he growled softly. "Now, if you can't play nice, I'm going to send each of you to your own rooms until you can behave. Am I understood?" his voice never rose above a whisper, but it didn't need to. Suddenly, all four children were bowing their heads in fear and surrender.

"Yes, sir," they muttered.

"Good. Now be quiet," William raised a finger to his lips before closing the door, leaving them with a much smaller area of light.

"You know what?" Michael asked, trying desperately to conceal his fear. He wasn't used to being acknowledge by his father. "I'm out of here," he got up and left the room, taking his foxy mask with him.

"Scott, I think you should go too," Elizabeth insisted.

"Elizabeth-" Charlie began.

"No," Elizabeth pointed to her door. Scott got up miserably, but made no sound, leaving without a single protestation.

This left Elizabeth and Charlie alone.

"Do you want to play shadow puppets, or not?" the little girl demanded.

"Fine. Let's," Charlie gestured to the wall.

"Alright, who are you going to be?" the younger girl sighed, her scowl breaking just long enough for Charlie to see the true sorrow and fear under her apathetic mask. Elizabeth was actually quite scared of her family and hated all the trouble they caused. It was why she tried to avoid her brothers. She didn't want to be caught up in either of the messes they started. It was why she spent so much time with Charlie, because Charlie lacked these issues at home. Charlie made Elizabeth safe and happy. It was why she was the only one still with Elizabeth. Charlie's heart went out to the whole family. She began to suspect that maybe even Michael wasn't as mean as he seemed. If William hardly ever spoke to any of his kids, except Elizabeth, no wonder one of them was a jerk and the other was always afraid. And even Elizabeth, spoiled as she was, seemed to understand that her life was not going the way it was supposed to, and that angered and scared her. Charlie really did feel bad for all of the Afton children.

"Who are you going to be?" Elizabeth repeated.

"I guess I'm going to create a new shadow puppet," said Charlie." I'm going to be a great big bird that can fly away from here and take all of you with me," she raised her hands high in the air, palms flapping like wings.

"I guess I'll be the bunny this time, and you can rescue me," Elizabeth said, bringing up her shadow bunny.

"Of course," Charlie answered her. "I'll always be around to rescue you."

And despite the overall gloom of the past few minutes, just for a moment, the two girls began to smile for real. Their grins were illuminated by the flashlight and suddenly, everything wasn't as dark as it had been before.

 **AN: This is a gift to Lumax033 (Archive of Our Own) for the wonderful reviews you left on my stories and the "After the Smoke Clears" FNAF fic you wrote for me. I'm sorry if this was a bit longer and angstier than you might've wanted, but here you go. If you have any other plot ideas, tell me and I'll write them for you. Courtesy of a friend!**

 **Alright, as you can see, this is mainly game canon but uses some book canon and also some headcanon. In my mind, William had Michael, then Elizabeth, then Scott. I imagine Michael being about 10, Elizabeth being 6 and Scott being 4 (roughly). This would make Charlie maybe 8-ish. In this fic, William and Henry co-run the Diner and since Henry is gone right now, William has to look after all of the kids. This is just a peek into their home life with the idea that there's a lot of messed up things going on there and we get to see it through Charlie's eyes. And of course, yes, there is the symbolism of the shadows and what each character looks like or chooses to be when in front of the flashlight, but that's just my love of that kind of stuff. Hope it wasn't too dark (metaphorically) and you'll have to forgive any canon inaccuracies. The FNAF lore is next to impossible to keep straight.**


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